


sober

by lattebooks



Category: Voltron - Fandom, Voltron: Defender of the Universe (1984), Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Big brother Shiro, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), F/M, Gay, Gay Keith (Voltron), Keith and Shiro are Siblings, Keith x Lance - Freeform, LGBT, LGBT characters, LGBTQ, M/M, Minor Allura/Shiro (Voltron), Voltron, i felt the need to tag that, idk what to tag things aaah, keith and lance, keith kogane - Freeform, keith kogayne, klance, lance - Freeform, lance mcclain - Freeform, lots of alcohol welp, texan keith, voltron legendary defender - Freeform, whoops my hand slipped, whoops that's lowkey a spoiler
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2018-11-19 23:06:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11323611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lattebooks/pseuds/lattebooks
Summary: In which Lance finds a random number written on the wall of a bathroom and drunkenly texts it.All Lance wanted wanted was to go to New Orleans with his best friends for Mardi Gras, but now he was in a hospital room somewhere on the border of Texas reading a text conversation he doesn't remember having.





	1. Preface

**Author's Note:**

> Underlined texts are the other person and the non underlined texts are Lance.

> There was very little Lance McClain hated. He hated gloomy days and the sound of shoes skidding on tile. He hated his Mechanics Professor and most of all, he hated public restrooms. He hated the odd intimacy that was shared between the people sharing the restrooms and he hated the way he had to pretend to look around the filthy bathroom as he avoided any eye contact with strangers that wandered in and out of the restroom. So there he stood, his gaze jumping to the 10 digits written in thick letters above the urinal he stood at. He wasn’t sure what influenced him to do it, maybe the thrill of  being in a liquor store bathroom in mid Louisiana at 10 am, but he pulled his phone out of his pocket and put the number into his phone. He knew it was ridiculous seeing as he couldn’t even tell if one of the digits was 5 or a 6, but maybe that was just the jello shots doing their thing or maybe the vandal that wrote the number in the first place was just a sloppy writer.

Either way, Lance had the number of a stranger in his phone and enough alcohol in his system to text said number. As he later stood in the checkout line with his best friend Hunk, he did just that. He pulled his phone out of his pocket with no hesitation and sent a text to the random number.

(Tuesday, February 28th, 10:13 am) Heyy

(10:25 am) I think you have the wrong number.

(10:26) Cant have the wrong number if i don't know who im texting in the frst place

[Read 10:26]

…

“I think going to Mardi Gras in New Orleans was the worst idea I’ve ever had,” Lance said as he massaged his temples.

“What about that time in freshman year you-” Hunk began.

“Oh, that’s right. That was the worst.” Pidge commented.

“And what about Thanksgiving last year when we-” Hunk continued

“We agreed we would never talk about that ever again,” Lance said tipping his head back to get the last gulp of coffee in his cup.

“It’s probably better for poor Pidge if she doesn’t hear that sort of stuff,” Hunks said in agreement.

“I’m not even that much younger  than you guys.”

“Yeah, Pidge, it’s not your fault that you’re a prodigy. It really could have happened to anyone,” Lance said with a snort.

“You seem to have forgotten that I’m behind the wheel and that I have control over both your lives right now,” she said as she made a swift turn that shook the boys to the core. “And I have the sudden urge to push you out of a moving vehicle.”

“God, Pidge, calm down,” Lance groaned. He could feel his fast paced heart beat in his temples.

“It’s not my fault you guys are so hungover.”

Pidge was right of course. She was underaged and chose to be the designated driver. It was Hunk and Lance who decided to go to Mardi Gras specials at bars and liquor stores in the middle of the day… everyday.

“Do you have to talk so loud?” Hunk pried his eyes open in attempt to get used to light.

“Do you guys have to get slammed so often?” Pidge replied.

“Touche,” Lance muttered grabbing his buzzing phone.

“Another text from the crush?” Hunk teased.

“What are you talking-” Lance abruptly stopped and sat up in his seat.

(9:15 am) Only if you show me yours

“What the hell is this?” he yelled.

“What did she say this time?”

“Who the hell is _grit daddy_?” Lance read out the name above the text.

“You can’t be serious?” Hunk asked.

“Lance, you’ve been texting this girl for days. How could you not remember?” Pidge asked. “Were you _that_ drunk?”

To which Hunk said. “Even I was sober enough to remember you texting.”

Lance said nothing, but remained dumbfounded staring at his phone. He finally got a girl’s number and he can’t even remember? What a shame.

“Read through the conversations you’ve had,” Hunk suggested.

“Yeah, it might jog your memory,” Pidge added.

Though he was reluctant to do so, Lance unlocked his phone and opened up his messages app which was accompanied by a red bubble with a number way over one hundred in it.

As it turned out, the text was a reply to Lance texting the person “I want to see your face.” Upon seeing the conversation, he wasn’t sure if he should be relieved it was nothing more than that or scared that it was that at all. He scrolled all the way to the top to dissect the situation from the start. As scrolled, he passed jokes and stories and small talk, but he didn’t stop to read anything frankly because he was too confused to do so.

(10:44am) did you just hang up on me?

(10:45) Why did you call me?

(10:45)u left me on read

(10:45)Because I don’t know you.

(10:45)Dosnt make it any less rude

(10:46)Okay, sorry, stranger, that I didn’t care to have a meaningful conversation with you.

(10:46)Well, then, the only solution is to not be strangers anymore.

[Read 10:47]

(11:20am) kk, so I’ll start introducing myself. My name is Lance and I might be a little drunk right now. I really like the color blue. I don’t really believe in souls and crap, but I think if I had a soul it would be blue.

(11:52) im back where did I leave off? Well I might actually believe in souls. I’m a science student, so I don’t think that I’m supposed to believe in that stuff. It’s like if Bill Nye said he believes that the Earth is flat.

(11:54) What science do you study?

(11:57) Of all the things that you could have told me about yourself or asked about me, you care about what I study?

(11:57) I like science sue me

(11:58) Astronomy

[read 11:58]

(9:10 pm) Your turn tell me something about yourself

(9:12) I like science.

(9:12) Weve established that alreayd

(9:13) Okay.

(9:13)I like the color red. I don’t believe in souls either, but I think mine would be red.

(9:13) We’d make purple

(9:15) What?

(9:15) Our intertwined souls would be purple

[Read 9:20]

Lance couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that he had texted this person all of these things and had no recollection of it. That couldn’t be possible, right? Or at least it can’t be healthy.

“Anything ringing a bell?” Hunk asked.

“Huh?” Lance had slipped into his own mind’s cocoon of thoughts.

“Are you starting to remember texting them?” Pidge asked.

“A little.” He wasn't sure how to explain it, but when Lance read the texts, he could imagine him typing them in the liquor store parking lot or the bar they went to later that night. The words were his, but it seemed as if the alcohol had stolen them and used it for its own benefit.

He continued scrolling.

 

oOo

 

(11:11pm) I wish you’d text me back

(11:23) I wish you’d leave me alone.

(11:25) I would, but you’re still practically a stranger to me and you yourself told me that you can’t have a meaningful conversation with strangers

(11:25)You call this meaningful?

(11:25)You don’t? I’m hrut

(11:30)Okay tell, me, where did you grow up?

(11:31)Dallas

(11:31)What a coincidence im from houston texas baby

(11:32)Don't call me that.

(11:32)What

(11:33)Baby

(11:33)Its a song

(11:33)What

(11:33)”Houston texas, baby.”. Its a line from Run the World

(11:34)You mean that Cher song?

(11:34)You’re telling me that you’re Texan and you don’t know Beyonce?

(11:35)Houston is hundreds of miles from Dallas

(11:35)Beyonce is everywhere

Lance stopped reading somewhat abruptly. When was the last time he spoke to someone so easily?

“Are you sure I was interested in this person? They don’t even know Beyonce,” he said scrolling past the conversation about their varying music tastes. This person seemed to be into Indie Rock and simply everything Lance didn’t listen to. Hunk had to be wrong. He couldn’t have liked someone who didn’t believe in the life changing power of Beyonce’s music.

(Wednesday March 1st, 2:33am) You up?

(2:47) Finishing up a paper.

(2:47)I wont bother you then.

(2:48)No, its fine it hasn't stopped you before

(2:48)I was trying to be nice jesus

(2:49)Im just kidding I need a distraction anyway

(2:49)Now I’m just a distraction to you? You devalue me.

(2:50)I don’t even know you

(2:51)You know me plenty. You know that my hypothetical soul is blue and that I live by the words of one Beyonce Carter.

(2:51)If that’s all there is to know about you then, yes, I do devalue you, a person with a grand total of two traits.

(2:52)Well tell me about yourself so I can devalue you back.

(2:52)I make bad decisions and wait until the last second to finish papers.

(2:53)Its okay I make bad decisions and get randomly wasted and call numbers I find in liquor store bathrooms. Compared to me, you’re a god.

(2:53)You found my number in a liquor store bathroom?

(2:53)Ye

(2:54)Which liquor store?

(2:54)Idk some store down by Highway 10

(2:54)Highway 10 in Texas?

(2:55)Highway 10 in Louisiana.

(2:55)You found my number in Louisiana?

(2:56)You wrote your number in Louisiana liquor store and forgot?

(2:56)I’ve never been to Louisiana. It must have been my brother or something.

(2:57)And your brother would do something like that?

(2:57)He does stuff like that all the time. He used to give guys that hit on him my number instead of telling them that he was straight.

(2:58)Did they ever call you?

(2:58)Tons of them. A lot of them on the same nights looking for a late night booty call.

(2:59)Wish my brothers were that funny.

(2:59)Brothers plural?

“I even told her about my brothers?” Lance whispered to himself.

“Must be serious,” Pidge commented.

She was right of course- she always was -because Lance never shared too much about his family to many people, but as he continued reading the conversation, he found himself sharing more and more with this mystery girl. It was easier to open up when you didn’t know them and you knew for sure that they can’t judge you. It just all felt so easy with this person. Too easy to be true.

“But why is their name grit daddy in my phone?” Lance asked.

“You’re asking us the wrong questions, bud,” Hunk replied.

Still confused and too hungover to think, Lance turned his phone off and leaned back into his seat. Maybe after a little bit of shut eye, he would be able to piece this all together.

But right before he closed his eyes he saw something that made him suddenly alert.

He yelled out Pidge’s name, but it was too late, the truck had already hit them.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! This is an on going story, so I will try to update every week or so. Comment what you thought evem if you didn't like it. I appreciate constructive criticism and flames you want to give them.


	2. Bruised ribs and tear brimmed eyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Underlined texts are the other person and the non underlines are Lance.
> 
> disclaimer: Please keep in mind that not all of the messages Lance and his anon friend shared will be shown in the story, so there are things they talk about that we don't get to see.

There was so much Lance Mcclain unconsciously loved without knowing he loved it. He didn’t realize that he loved the sound of rain pattering on windows or the smell of florals or pacing. God knew how much he loved pacing, but he himself was unaware of it.

“Will you stop pacing? It’ll be okay. She’ll be,” Hunk paused when his voice cracked. Maybe it was because of his bruised ribs or his broken arm he was resting on the arm of the chair or maybe it was because he was anxious for Pidge. Whatever it was, the pain was clear in his voice. “She’ll be okay.”

Lance took a long shallow breathe that pinched at his bruised rib and made him dizzy. Lance sat down on one of the ER waiting room chairs next to his friend, but the need to move fell upon him again and he started tapping his feet to the unsteady beat of the rain hitting the windows. The normally soothing sound did nothing but irk him more and more until he couldn’t handle it anymore. He got up, turned to Hunk, sighed and said, “I need a breathe of fresh air. I’ll be back in while.”

He made his way through the hallways that all smelled like florals mixed with antiseptics. It reminded him of the thick scent that engulfed his home on Sunday mornings when his father bought his mother flowers on the way back from church. It was a fond memory; something so routine in his life that he didn’t realize how much he loved it. However, as he continued down the hallways and towards the exit, he was desperate to get out of the thick cloud of florals. There he was surrounded by something that always made him happy when his best friend was in surgery struggling for her life. He didn’t want his pleasant recollection to be tainted with the melancholy of the moment.

He steps outside and breathes in the hot Texan air. It doesn’t feel any better. The thickness of the humid air makes his chest ache even more, so he grabs a seat on a bench by the valet parking. Trying to get Pidge out of his mind, he pulls his phone out to check for text messages. There are a few texts from his mom, but she was the first person he had called after his doctors cleared his health earlier that day, so he ignores it and scrolls through his other notifications. He doesn’t read any of his texts, but scrolls until something catches his eye. 

_ Grit Daddy _ .

(4:22 pm)  are you ignoring me? 

(7:34 pm) It’s cool if you don’t want to share photos of each other. 

(7:34 pm) Guess it is a bit soon.

(7:37 pm) Forget I ever said anything

Oh, but Lance couldn’t forget. He couldn’t even remember most of the things they even said to each other in the past four days, but he couldn’t stop thinking about this girl. He read through a lot of their texts, but not enough to understand why the most recent texts were all very intimate. He had time to kill and he needed to get his mind off of Pidge, so he starts to go through some of the older messages.

(Wednesday March 1st)

(12:02 pm) got a 98 on my essay thanks to you

(12:05) like I said, you just gotta thread the needle

(12:05) sure

(12:10) what’s up

(12:11) Killer hangover. Like I could die. My friend keep trying to tell me that I will if I keep drinking this much

(12:12) were you drunk last night when we texted?

(12:12) yep

(12:13) no wonder you thought of so much philosophical crap for my essay

(12:13) no way thread the needle is my moto

Lance remembered this. His head was pounding and the light of his phone screen made him dizzy, but he remembered lying on his hotel room couch texting someone. Thinking back on it, he thought it was the good looking guy from the bar the night before that he was texting, but now knowing it wasn’t made him feel better somehow. This anonymous person he was texting felt like an internet friend- something he had very little experience with. Lance was an extrovert and sometimes he just didn’t text people back purely out of spite. Internet friends just weren’t for him, but drunk Lance thought otherwise.

He was scrolling through more conversations of banter when he caught the sight of a duo rushing into the emergency room. There went by him so quickly that he almost didn’t see who it was. Almost.

It couldn’t be, he thought. Takashi Shirogane? What would he, one of the next 12 astronauts in training at NASA, be doing in a hospital in West Orange, Texas? Out of curiosity and with the lack of better judgement, he reenters the hospital where he sees the person that Takashi is with.

“Matt?” 

Matt turned from the information desk as the sound of his name, “Lance!”

“I thought you couldn’t come until tomorrow,” he replied.

“My friend, Shiro,” he paused and gestured in the towering man next to him, “gave me a ride over. Where is she? Is she okay? Can I see her?”

He spoke rapidly with his anxiety laced words running together. Not a single soul in the universe loved Pidge as much her brother Matt Holt did.

Lance calmly walks over to the information desk to sign Matt and Shiro in as Katie Holt’s visitors. He had been here all day and had started to get the hang of things, so he knew not to freak Matt out by telling him the severity of his sister’s condition. He and Hunk had gotten out of the crash with a combined three bruised ribs and one broken arm. The impact, unfortunately was mostly on the driver’s side of the car. 

“She’s been in surgery for about two hours and there’s no telling when she will be out.” Lance explained as he led Matt and Shiro towards the waiting room. 

“How,” Matt started but he choked on his words.

“How bad is it?” Lance was surprised to hear Shiro ask this. He has been quiet until this very moment. 

“I don’t know lot,” he didn’t want to tell them, but when he met Matt’s tear brimmed eyes he knew he couldn’t refrain any longer. “She has about two cracked bruises and the impact gave her a lot of internal bleeding. There’s a lot going on, but I didn’t really understand any of the medical terms.”

There is a long, excruciating pause as they process his words. 

“She… They say she’s in critical condition.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! hope you enjoyed that. Fingers crossed I'll try to update weekly or bi weekly. As always I'd like to hear what you thought whether it's constructive criticism or not!


	3. Mustangs and area codes

Lance Mcclain loved music. He loved all sorts of music from R&B to Fall Out Boy to

Beyonce? 

(6:33pm, Wednesday March 1st 2017) Yes

(6:33) if you could date anyone in the world it would be beyonce?

(6:33) yes

(6:34) no one else at all?

(6:34) im only telling you this because i dont know you and bc im tipsy but ya know jeremy shada yeah id hit that

(6:35) so you’re…

(6:35) drunk and bisexual petiso

(6:37) is that spanish

(6:37) my blood is pure cuban and like a lot of alcohol

(6:38) but weren’t you just super hungover this morning

(6:38) its mardi gras week petiso grow up

(6:39) what does petiso mean

(6:39) its sorta like spanish slang for a short person

(6:39) how do you know I’m short

“Lance?”

He looks up from reading his text messages at the sound of his name and makes an odd hmph sound in response to Matt.

“How is the car? Is it totalled?” Matt Holt asked.

Lance’s whole body froze down to his anxiously tapping toes.

“Must be since most of the airbags popped…”

“How did you get here? Who called the ambulance?”

“I did,” said Hunk who had been uncharacteristically quiet in the hours they had spent in the waiting room.

“Okay, then…” Matt tried to help and search his brain for solutions and he reaches them, but his grasp on them falters. He couldn’t think with the knowledge that his sister was helpless in an operation room under the same roof.

“Why don’t we call the police to see who had it towed?” Shiro offered.

“Yeah, I’ll get on that,” Lance replied desperate for something to do but wait.

“No, you two rest your injuries.” Shiro assured. “I’ve got this.”

“Thanks, my car is an orange 93’ Mustang Cobra,” Lance told him. He knew his beloved car was gone and it had hurt to think about it, so he had pushed the thought aside until now. He found joy in working on cars and when he found the beat up Mustang on Craigslist freshman year of college, he knew he had to get it and fix it. It had take him until junior year, but the car was finally done and once it was ready to roll, he decided to take it on a road trip. Their legendary first road trip in the Mustang ended up being the last road trip in the Mustang.

“How do you know Shiro?” Lance asked Matt once he was out of earshot.

“From the Garrison.”

“You went to college with  _ the  _ Takashi Shirogane, my idol, my  _ inspiration _ , and you didn’t think to tell me?”

“He goes by Shiro now,” Matt replied.

“Well, when is  _ Shiro  _ leaving?”

“As soon as possible. He has to be back at the mission center as soon as possible since training hasn’t really stopped.”

“Matt… don’t you- don’t you think you should go back too? We can look after Pidge here. You must have so much to do at work,” Lance said as if Pidge had a cold rather than internal bleeding.

“No, Lance- I…” Matt started and scrambled for words. “You have siblings right? Imagine one of them dying in-”

“Matt,” Lance put his hand over Matt’s twiddling thumbs in effort to soothe him. “She’ll be okay.”

They fall back into the utter silence of the waiting room. Lance’s phone buzzes, but he ignores it, trying to find something else to calm him rather than texting. 

“Can you  _ please _ stop tapping your feet?” Hunk asked.

Lance sighed and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He had a few notifications from his family; the most recent from his brother asking about the specifics of his injury. He ignored them all and found himself looking for a certain name in his notifications. But alas, the anon hadn’t said anything since their last awkward texts. Lance didn’t know why, but he wish that they weren’t at such a dead end. After reading over their previous conversations and remembering the things they shared in the past few days, he didn’t want to let it go. Unreasonable, he knew, but talking to the anon had made him happy and made him feel free. 

Free. It was the feeling of driving down a foreign path that looks like a dead end, but when you drive to the end, there’s a fork in the road. So many more directions to go.

(Saturday, March 4th, 9:01 pm): Hey

He was nervous to hit send, but once he did the response came back lightning fast.

(9:01) Hey

(9:02) We cool?

 

(9:02) We are

(9:02) Okay so

(9:03) what’s up

(9:11) sorry I’m back my brother is being a dickwad

Reading this made Lance feel guilty about not replying to his own brother and neglecting his family all day, but the guilt didn’t last long enough for him to actually call him.

(9:12) whats up with him

(9:12) he expects me to be his backup whenever he needs anything

(9:13) youre his bitch

(9:13) I’m his what now?

(9:14) youre his bitch he uses you for stuff he doesnt want to do

( 9:14) that’s my brother alright

“Is that the girl?” Hunk asked peering over onto Lance’s phone screen.

“Yeah, I remember her a bit more now.”

“Good because you’ve been swooning over her for the past week.”

“I have not.”

“You  _ totally  _ have,” Hunk countered. “You have the hots for her.”

“I do not have _the hots_ -” Lance stopped abruptly to check the notification on his phone, but upon seeing that it was his brother and not the anon girl, he turned back to Hunk who had a wide smile spreading across his face. For the first time since that morning, Lance and his best friend shared a hearty laugh. Their voices rang through the mostly empty corridor. It almost felt good to laugh. Almost.

(9:15) so what are you up to

(9:16) driving ttyl

“At least we know that she’s over 16,” Hunk commented.

“Hunk, stop looking at our-” Lance stoped mid sentence making sense of what Hunk had said. “Wow, there’s no way to know what age she is, huh?”

“For all we know, she could be 50.” Another grin spread across Hunk’s face. “Or  _ he _ could be 50.”

“I don’t care if he’s a guy as long as he’s not 50.”

“Fine, let’s say they’re 21 like you. Then what?” He asked.

“Then…” Lance pretended to think. "Then nothing because I’m not a psychopath that meets random people that they’ve only been texting for a week.”

Hunk paused and then says nothing but, “Let me see your phone.”

“What? No! You can’t text them.” Lance held his phone closer to his chest.

“I’m not going to. I just need to look at something.”

Begrudgingly, he handed his phone to Hunk who proceeded to open the text conversation between Lance and  _ grit daddy _ . He slides into the contact for this person to look at the number and when he sees it, he can’t control the drop of his jaw.

“What?” Lance asked eagerly.

“832.”

“What about it?”

“That’s a Houston area code,” said Hunk who had gotten a Houston area code number the day he moved to Houston to go to the Garrison Institute of Science and Technology or  _ gist _ as some of the rival schools called it. “You know what this means right?”

“Fate.” Lance whispered.

“What?” 

“This means I’ll finally be able to meet them,” he said staring off, thinking, a small smile on his lips.

“You just said you’d never.”

“That was when I thought that they lived in Louisiana or the middle of nowhere somewhere else. Now that I know that they live where I do…” he trailed off into his own thoughts. “Do you think that maybe they go to the Garrison? How cool would that be?” His words were now at a faster pace and his tone was soaked with possibility and hope.

“Don’t get too excited now, buddy,” Hunk said. “They could still be an old creep. Maybe they don’t even live in Houston anymo-”

“No, Hunk. I have a feeling about this. A good feeling.”

His voice hushed, Hunk replied, “That’s what you said about this trip.”

Quiet plagues the room.

Shiro reenters the room cutting through the tension. Eager to find out the fate of his car, Lance shoot up from his chair, but his tall posture crumbles when he sees the unease in Shiro’s eyes. “Your car is… your car has hope. Let’s leave it at that.”

“My baby,” Lance murmured. 

Shiro puts a steady hand on his shoulder.

Suddenly, Lance felt silly. Even a little guilty. He was worked up over his car being totalled? Insane when talking made his chest ache and burn. Insane when breathing was a laborious task. Insane at best when the state that Pidge was in was unpromising.

Shaking the self pity out of his head, Lance falls into his chair next to Hunk, whose eyes are starting to flutter as he resisted the grasp of sleep. He watched lackadaisically as Hunk leaned his head onto the armrest on his chair and forfeited the fight to sleep.

 

oOo

When Lance opened his eyes the first thing he noticed was not the emptiness of the waiting room or the dimmed lights or even the bright red digital clock on the wall that read 2:12 am. The first thing he noticed when he woke up was the boy, his age or maybe older, with black hair curling in the back of his head, a strong stance, and piercing eyes staring right at Lance. 

Jolted from the drowsy grasp of sleep, Lance looked around at the empty waiting room to find no one he recognized. He tried to speak, but the words come out as a low growl. He clears his throat and tries again. 

“Keith?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed that! I'm still building up a lot of the story, so I'm sure it's a bit boring rn. Stick with this story though, I think it has some potential hidden deep deep down.  
> I know my weekly uploading schedule hasn't really been working out as promised, but it will get worse once marching season starts next week. I shouldn't be saying that I will start to update less, but I might and I want to give you a heads up. Thanks you reading and please comment what you thought :)


	4. ICUs and forks

Chapter 4

Previously on “Sober” 

_When Lance opened his eyes the first thing he noticed was not the emptiness of the waiting room or the dimmed lights or even the bright red digital clock on the wall that read 2:12 am. The first thing he noticed when he woke up was the boy, his age or maybe older, with black hair curling in the back of his head, a strong stance, and piercing eyes staring right at Lance._

_Jolted from the drowsy grasp of sleep, Lance looked around at the empty waiting room to find no one he recognized. He tried to speak, but the words come out as a low growl. He clears his throat and tries again._

_“Keith?”_

“Uh, do I know you?” the boy asked.

Lance blinked hard. When he opened his eyes, Keith still stood in front of him still peering at him with his steel blue eyes.

He rubs his eyes hoping to smear the vision of the boy away.

“Is there something in your eye?” Keith asked his eyebrows furrowed and confusion splattered in his features.

“No, I…I haven’t seen you in forever.”

“I have never seen you in my entire life,” he replied with utmost certainty. “Who are you?”

“Who am I?” His eyes shifted into slits. “The name’s Lance. We were in the same class at the Garrison.”

“Really? Are you an engineer?”

“No, I’m a pilot!” Lance spat. “We were like rivals. You know, Lance and Keith, neck and neck.”

“Oh, wait. I remember you,” he replied, “You're a cargo pilot.”

“Well, not anymore. I'm fighter class now, thanks to you washing out.”

“Well, congratulations,” Keith said in spite, but his tone was soaked in remorse. He turns towards the information desk without another word.

“Where is everyone?” Lance asked realizing that he and Keith were completely alone in the room with no nurse behind the counter where they kept the records. The digital clock above the counter blink 2:14 in bright red. He’d been sleeping for at least an hour.

“I’m probably at the wrong hospital,” Keith said with a groan.

“In this tiny town? I’m surprised there’s one hospital here at all,” he replied pulling himself out of the uncomfortable chair. He stretched out the soreness in his body as he made his way to the swinging doors that lead to the ICU.

“Where are you going?” Keith asked suddenly interested in Lance again.

“To see where everyone is,” he replied as if it was obvious.

“Can’t you read? The doors say do not enter.”

Lance stares at the large thick letters on the doors pretending to read it.

“Nope, I’m illiterate,” he said finally letting sarcasm take the words from his mouth and opened the door leaving Keith with his jaw on the floor.

“You can’t just go around looking for people in the ICU.” Lance heard from behind him. He didn’t turn to look, but he knew that Keith was following him into the hall of care units. The thought spread a small smile on his face. “There are obviously patients in these rooms.”

Lance kept walking, and peering through the glass on the doors of each room he passed.

“You’re going to get us kicked out.” Keith said

Lance makes his strides longer.

Keith matched his pace. “Lance!”

He stops abruptly and turns to Keith with fury written in his eyes. “Listen, biker boy,” he said glancing at his biker gloves. “I’ve had a long, _long_ day and an even longer night. Okay?” he snapped. “And-and I don’t need you on my back right now.”

Keith quickly turns his gaze away from Lance’s intimidating dark black eyes. How could he have forgotten those eyes? He gave him the same spiteful look regularly when they fought in their classes. The urgency in Keith retreated.

The pair continued to walk through the hall stopping to look into each room ever so often. The tension between them simmered further. Lance wasn’t sure if the air was heavy between them or if he was having trouble breathing. They were closing to the end of the hall and neither Pidge nor any of his other friends were to be in found the ICUs.

If she wasn't in an ICU or treatment room... well, there wasn't any other place to go for patients whose surgeries had gone _well_. Anxiety bubbled up in Lance's chest as he check the last door in the hall.

Empty.

He didn’t turn around to Keith. He couldn’t admit this defeat. He just stood leaning on the door letting it hold him up because maybe if it didn’t he’d crumble to the ground and weep. He couldn’t do that. He was stronger than that and he especially couldn’t do it in front of Keith. He’d promised himself he’d never be vulnerable.

“Uh… what are you doing?” Keith asked his eyebrows lacing together in confusion.

Lance turns to him with an annoyed scowl. _What are you doing? What did he mean “what are you doing?” Is he really that bad at grieving?_

“Don’t answer that let’s just keep going,” he replied to the silence.

“There’s nowhere to go!” Lance yelled finally. Stage two; Anger.

“Look, dude,” Keith said with his hands up in surrender. “I know you’re going through some stuff right now, but you’re being a little over dramatic.”

Fury rejoined Lance’s frigid body. “Overdramatic?” he yelled. “You think I’m being overdramatic? You have no idea what’s going on. You can’t come in here and tell me what’s wrong.”

“You’re the one that wanted to check all the rooms,” he pointed out.

“We did and Pidge isn’t in any of them.” Fleshing out the situation sent another pang through his heart.

“Pidge as in Katie?” Keith asked his voice much lower than before.

“How do you know Pidge?”

“Come on. We’ll find her,” he ignored Lance’s question and grabbed his wrist, but he pulls away from Keith just as fast.

“Where the hell are you trying to take me?”

Sighing in defeat, Keith turns on his heel and heads towards the wall at the end of the hallway and then to Lance’s dismay turns behind a janitor’s cart. The dull gray tiles of the wall blended the walls together creating an illusion of a single wall, but there behind the cart was an entrance to another hall of rooms.

Once Lance followed Keith into the next hallway, he noticed that there were more hallways connected to that one. Hope brought a wave of warmth over Lance. It was like they were at a fork in the road and there were more directions to go.

So many more directions to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed that and noticed a little bit of the script from the pilot I weaved in there.  
> So I know that was short, but that was actually two chapter put together lol. As promised last time, I haven't posted since marching season started. I've been trying, but I've been busy and tonight is my last night of summer. I will try to update weekly once school in officially in session (I will try to update on Tuesdays excluding the upcoming Tuesday). And that is all! I hope you all have a wonderful back to school season.


	5. hospital wards and auxiliary cords

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Underlined texts are from the mystery person and the non underlined ones are Lance's

Previously on Sober-

_ It was like they were at a fork in the road and there were more directions to go.  _

_ So many more directions to go. _

Lance McClain hated very little things. He tried to fill his life with things he loved and surround him with things that made him happy. But life threw things at him that he didn’t like and Lance puffed out his chest, tightened his grip on positivity and persevered.

As he walked through the hallway in search of Pidge with Keith, Lance held onto positivity as if it was the only thing holding him up and if he let go, he would fall to the floor. With how his day was going, he probably would have.

The hope in his eyes faltered, however, when he peered through a window on a door in one of the treatment rooms. In it is a scrubs clad woman with long white hair and behind her is a familiar wisp of white and black hair. Shiro.

Lance frantically yanked at the door.

It didn’t move.

He pulled harder and more furiously.

Nothing.

He dug his hands into his hair in frustration and turned around to Keith who was starting to close into Lance. Keith was suddenly so close his breath tickled Lance’s nose and left him perplexed. He reached his hand out to Lance- no not  _ to  _ him- but  _ beside  _ him and lightly pushed the door open. The door swings open with a squeak, but Keith didn’t move further from Lance or take his dark intimidating eyes off of his. 

They stood staring at each other accompanied only by the tension in their eyes and a faint beeping sound.

“Keith?” Shiro’s voice from inside tore the boys apart before they could throw each other apart.

Keith said something in reply to Shiro, but Lance couldn’t register it as he rushed to Pidge’s bedside. 

“Is she…” he choked on his words. He turns to Matt for an answer, but he turns his tear brimmed eyes away from him. 

“Are you family of Ms. Holt’s?” the nurse in the room asked.

Lance nods slowly.

“We can get you a set of her medical papers, but Mr. Holt, being immediate family, has already signed consent forms.”

“Consent forms?” He didn’t know much about medicine, but he knew that didn’t sound good.

“For Ms. Holt’s medically induced coma,” the nurse continued to talk to him about the legalities of the process and why they put her in a coma, but Lance couldn’t register anything but the word  _ coma  _ and the beeping of the heart monitor. The word coma ran through his head again and again in a loop until the word lost all meaning. The beeping of the heart monitor clouded his thoughts and he gripped onto Pidge’s bed so he doesn’t collapse to the ground. 

Hunk rushed to Lance’s side, took his wrist and steered him out of the ward. 

“Why didn’t you wake me?” Lance whispered as Hunk dragged him back through the hallway and into the waiting room. He yanked his arm away from his friend’s grasp and slammed through the swinging doors of the waiting room. “How could you not wake me? Did I not deserve to know? Was an afterthought even though that’s my best friend dying in that stupid room?”

“Shut  _ up _ , Lance!” Hunk had had enough. “This isn’t about you! They brought her out 10 minutes ago and we just ran into the room with her.”

“I don’t care! I deserve to know.” Lance’s chest ached with what he thought was anger and his voice got louder with every word as if he could yell so much the feeling would flee his body.

“You do know! You’re here now! Why doesn’t everything have to be about you?”

“This isn’t about me. It’s about her!” 

Neither boys knew why they were angry or if they even were. There was an emotion squeezing so hard at their hearts, they needed to exert it somehow. 

“Then leave it the fuck alone!”

The still empty waiting room walls bounce Hunk’s stern voice back in an echo.

The echo fades into silence.

The silence fades into regret. 

“I’m sorry,” Hunk said.

“No… I’m more sorry. I just…”

“God, Lance, why can’t you just let me be sorry?” Hunk yelled seething with anger.

Stage two. 

Anger. 

One second he’s apologizing and the next he’s exploding in Lance’s face.

“Hunk, what do you want from me?”

“To care about someone more than yourself for a second,” Hunk spat, “This is all your fault.”

“Don’t you da-”

“Mardi Gras was all your stupid idea and it’s all your fucking fault and-”

In an impulsive second, Lance swung his fist at Hunk.

Hunk dodged. 

In another reckless second, Hunk hit back straight to his face. Taken aback by the pain, Lance brought his hand to his bloody nose and fell to his knees. In a second of vulnerability, Hunk swung again.

In an another impulsive second, a blur ran towards the two and blocked the punch.

Lance blinked at the unfolding scene. He thought that maybe the next time he opened his eyes it wouldn’t be Keith who took a hit for him, but every time his eyes opened, it was still Keith holding Hunk away from Lance.

“Keith!” The yell was Shiro’s.

“I didn’t do anything,” he yelled back.

“I know you too to well know that isn’t true, kid.”

“Shiro, I just stopped these two from tearing each other apart.”

“I don’t want to hear it.” He threw his hands in the air in defeat. “You can leave. I’m going to stay with Matt.”

Keith didn’t fight the integrity of the situation, but said, “Don’t you have to get back to work? You won’t have a car.”

“I’ll take a bus. Someone needs to be here for Matt, he refuses to leave.”

“I can stay with him, I don’t have any classes this week,” Hunk intervened.

“And I’ll be here too,” Lance paused knowing he had an exam this week he could definitely not retake later. “I- I don’t have anywhere to be either.”

“No,” Shiro said firmly. “The two of you,” he gestures his head to him and Hunk, “shouldn’t be here together.”

“But-”

“You go to the Garrison right?”

“Yes,” Lance muttered and hung his head. He was beyond embarrassed that his idol was scowling at him. 

“Perfect, then Keith will take you home.”

OoO

“Don’t touch my radio!” 

Lance yanked his hand away from the tuner in fear. 

“Driver picks the music and shotgun shuts his pie hole.”

“You can’t justify being a dick with a Supernatural quote,” Lance muttered.

“Fine then choose whatever you want,” Keith sighed and gestured to his radio.

“I have a better idea. Do you have an aux cord?”

“What the hell is an ox cord?” Keith said turning his confused gaze from the road to Lance.

“Not an  _ ox _ cord; an  _ aux _ cord.”

“Do you hear yourself? You’re saying ox twice and saying it’s different.”

“Oh, dios mio…” Lance muttered and dug through the mess of papers in his backpack and pulled out a hot pink cord.

“You carry auxiliary cords with you?” Keith asked eyeing the cord.

“Yes, I do in case the weirdo driving doesn’t know what an  _ aux _ cord is, but knows what an  _ auxiliary  _ cord is.”

“This is stupid. Just choose your damn music!”

“I’m trying to Jesus Chr-” Lance said as he scrolled through the music on his phone and tapped his favorite song, Formation, but upon hearing the first note, Keith interrupted him.

“Nope. Nope. Nope. When I said you could play music, I meant real music. Not trash pop.”

“Did you just call Beyonce trash pop?” Lance gasped.

“No I-” Keith stopped mid thought. “This is Beyonce?” 

“The one and only.”

There’s a moment of silence the two hadn’t shared since they got in the car.

“Ok.”

Dumbfounded by Keith’s sudden agreement, Lance lets it go lets himself wade in the silence. Yet the almost tangible tension cuts through the silence. It makes the air buzz and negative thoughts rise in the boys.

“Can you stop tapping your foot?” Keith growled.

“I don’t know  _ can _ I?” Lance snapped back with the same amount of grit to his voice.

“Lance!”

“Ok, whatever.” He rolled his eyes.

He averted his attention to his phone desperate to find a distraction. He scrolled through a folder titled “games” his sister made on his phone last time he was home, but none of them interested him. What interested him was the red bubble next to the messages icon. The number on the bubble was over a hundred, his inbox always overfilled with him neglecting it all the time. Except now, Lance couldn’t help but wonder if the mystery girl was one of those hundred. 

She wasn’t.

Hours later, the last text in the conversation was still 

(Saturday, March 4th 9:13)  Driving ttyl

“I swear to god, Lance, if you don’t stop tapping your feet I’m kicking you out of my car,” Keith growled. 

“Sorry,” Lance mumbles half  mindedly. He was too busy scrolling back to the top of the message conversation to listen to anything Keith wanted to say.

(Wednesday, March 1st 3:00 am)  Wow your family’s big.

“Who uses correct punctuation in texting?”

Keith looked like was about to reply, but Lance cut him off with, “Losers, that’s who.”

“They must be if they’re texting you,” Keith snorted.

“Are you trying to fight me?” Lance raised a mocking fist in the air.

“Oh my god, Lance we just talked about this. I am  _ not _ going to fight you,” Keith said in exasperation. He glanced at the GPS on his phone hoping it would say that they were nearing their destination, but it blinked a message below in the map that read 

10 minutes since departure.

 

oOo

(Wednesday, March 1st 4:24 a.m. )  You didn’t

(4:24) you underestimate me

(4:24) you actually got kicked out?

(4:25) yeah we broke a mannequin while were fighting

(4:25) so you’re telling me you didn’t get kicked out of a mall for getting in a fight, but because you broke a mannequin?

(4:25) fighting that petiso was worth it

(4:25) he was a ten year old

(4:26) a ten year old that bullied my little brother

(4:26) you must love him a lot to get in a fight for him

(4:26) he’s my baby brother it's my job

(4:27) my brother would never

(4:27) Yeah he would

(4:27)  How could you possibly know lol

(4:28) older brothers intuision

(4:28) you spelled intuition wrong

(4:28) thats not the point

(4:29)  the point is my brother didn’t even showed up to my graduation

(4:29) College graduation?

(4:29)  High school

(4:29) Oh

(4:29)  He had something more important at college or something dumb like that

(4:30) It must have been huge if he missed something important to you

(4:43) wow its late

(4:35)  Or really early

(4:37) Werent you writing a paper?

(4:37)  Oh shit 

Lance looked up from his old text messages when he heard a beep.

“Uh, Keith.”

Keith keep his eyes on the road, but Lance noticed the car had begun slowing.

“Keith!”

“Jesus!” Keith spat and took his earbuds out. Just moments earlier, they had gotten in an argument about their music again and against better judgement Keith had plugged headphones into his ancient iPod nano for some peace. 

“There’s a beeping noise.”

Keith looked down at the dashboard light thing what is that called and said, “Oh no.”

“I was really hoping this wasn’t an ‘oh no’ thing,” Lance said fear rising in his throat.

“Don’t kill me.” He turned to Lance with an apology written in his eyes.

“That makes it sound like I should kill you.”

Keith stretched a sarcastic grin across his face, but the rest of him remained fearful.

“We might be a little low on gas,” he said.

“How low?”

Before Keith could answer, a rusty sputter of the engine answered and he immediately pulled the car to the shoulder of the highway. The sputter got louder and he killed the engine as if he were about to turns the engine off before it stopped on its own.

“What the hell?” Lance’s face was flushed with red and this time it was not cute.

“Fuck, fuck,  _ fuck _ .” Keith groaned. He dropped his head to the steering wheel and if he had any energy left in him, he would have banged his head on it.

“Are you kidding me? It’s 3 a.m. in the middle of nowhere. How will we get back home? You had one job and…” Lance kept spatting heated words, but Keith had already tuned out. He pulled his phone out of his back pocket to see eight missed calls from the same person.

It stung Keith to do it, but there was no choice but to call him for help. There was no one else but  _ him  _ that would possibly be awake or willing to drive an hour to come pick up Keith’s sorry butt. Keith couldn’t keep ignoring  _ him _ forever right? They had to resolve whatever fight they were in or Lance was going to drive Keith to insanity.

Keith took a long deep breathe. 

“Lance, shut up,” he pressed.The firmness in his voice stopped Lance mid-sentence in his rant.

Keith dialed the number from memory.

The phone rings just three times before  _ he  _ picked up. 

“Hey, baby…” Keith said softly into his phone. “I need you.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Christmas came early with an update! Hope you guys enjoyed that and if you did (or didn't) comment what you thought. As always, I welcome constructive criticism. And if you liked it, don't be afraid to kudos or comment either ;) Thanks for reading and expect new chapters in the next few weeks (i have three pre-written)!!!


	6. bonding moments and exes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Texting key-  
> underline is other person  
> normal text is Lance

Lance wasn’t a hateful person. No, he kept his chin up and wore his smile wide and proud every given moment. But that morning, stranded on the side of the interstate waiting for Keith’s friend to pick up their sorry butts, they were both irritable and angry beyond normalcy. They sat on the side of road, both of them claiming the inside of the car was too stuffy and though they didn’t admit it out loud, staying in there would only make each other more and more indignant.

Lance hummed a lullaby his mother used to sing to him to keep sane and his head level. He expected Keith to turn to him and yell, but he pushed his knees to his chest, wrapped his arms around them and rocked to the tune of the song.

The song ended.

The crickets sang back.

Lance observed the area around them in the little light the streetlights offered. The four lane highway road occupied not a single soul, but the forest surrounding it seemed to be alive and thriving. The thought sent a jolt through Lance. There were things in the woods he couldn’t even fathom.

He moved his gaze to Keith who sat closer to the curb than Lance, but away from him so that he couldn’t see what he was doing on his phone.

Lance took his own phone out and was greeted by a pleasant surprise.

(2:14 am Sunday March 5) hey 

(2:15) you’re alive

(2:17) yeah sorry i had to do this stupid thing 

(2:17) So what’s up

(2:17) Idk a lot of shit has been going on 

(2:18) You wanna talk about it?

(2:18) Not really 

(2:18) Ok

(2:19 )But i’m bored so if you’re not going to bed can we just talk? 

(2:21) Over phone?

(2:22)No just text. 

(2:22)Ok what do you want to talk about

(2:23)Anything. Everything. 

(2:23)Specific

(2:23) Do you have any pets?

(2:24) What is this the first day of kindergarten?

(2:24) Yes now will you be my best friend?

(2:25) Aren’t we already friends?

Lance looked up from his phone and stared up at the stars. It always amazed him how connecting stars into constellations always helped him connect his jumbled thoughts. Him and the mystery girl has been texting for long enough that the conversations had become meaningful. They could talk about anything because they didn’t know each other. Mystery girl had suddenly turned into Lance’s journal and he loved it. Now the word friend made him question it. If they were friends maybe they was loyalty attached to the title. He wasn’t sure he wanted to meet the mystery girl now or ever.

(2:25) Yes and now we’re best friends

(2:26) Best friends know each other's names

So they had thought about Lance the same way Lance thought of them. It shouldn’t have some off as a surprise to Lance, but he knew he didn’t want his questions answered just yet.

(2:27) Then we should hold off on being best friends for a while don’t you think? 

When there wasn’t an immediate reply, lance started freaking out thinking what he said drove them away. He squeezed his eyes shut he pushed the idea that she was just doing something else and wasn’t ignoring him into his head.

(2:28) So what have you been up to all weekend? 

(2:28) P much been slammed for most of it

Different types of slammed everyday, but they didn’t need to know that.

(2:28) Hbu?

(2:29) Studying. And saving my brother’s ass 

(2:29) So what happened with that?

(2:30) He needed me, he used me, and then tossed me aside 

(2:30) Wdym

(2:31) Idk he’s always super distance and too forward. Are your brothers like that? 

(2:31) My family is p close, but i know what you mean. Ever since i moved out my brothers and i lost that bond. We only talk to each other for necessities now

(2:32) Why do older brothers try so hard to push their little siblings away? Is that in the rule book or something 

Lance stopped and looked up to the stars as if they would have an answer for him. Guilty about not replying to his brother, he pulled up his text conversation with his brother and sent him a quick text saying

(Sunday March 5th, 2:33 am) There has been some major things going on, but i want to wait until i see you to tell them to you. Maybe we can FaceTime or something this week? Talk to you soon. s you and I’ll talk to you later, ok? Love you.

 

He turned his phone off and turned to Keith. He too had put his phone away and was laying down on the shoulder of the road and staring at the stars.

“Help me find Orion,” he said to Lance softly.Lance, who’d studied astronomy since he was a little kid, looked up and instantly spotted the constellation.

“It’s right there,” Lance said pointing at it.

Keith tried to follow his finger as it pointed to the sky, but it wasn’t pointing to anything from his view point.

“Where?” Keith asked out of curiosity rather than the annoyance he possessed earlier. Astronomy brought that out in him. Stars made him feel at peace. Connecting them felt like a stress reliever in an adult coloring book like the one Shiro got him for Christmas. He pointed towards what he thought Lance was pointing at and said, “That?”

Lance got up and moved close enough to Keith to gently take his wrist and point his hand to the right part of the sky that held the constellation.   
“Thanks,” Keith said while mentally connecting the points of Orrion. “How did you know where it was?”

“I’ve been studying astronomy since I was 7. My abuelo, Lance the first, would take me on his roof of his house in the suburbs where you can see every single star because there aren’t enough lights to drown out the lights. But you can’t do that in Houston. Everything is too bright. There’s too much going on.”

“You go to the Garrison, right?”

“Yeah. And you go to Marmora now?” Lance asked though he already knew from stalking him on twitter.

“Yeah.”  
“You miss the Garrison?” The Garrison always felt like home to Lance. He couldn’t imagine graduating from the Garrison yet alone leaving by choice like Keith did.

“Almost as much as I miss you,” Keith joked.

“The Garrison misses you though,” Lance said with all seriousness. “You were a great pilot. I was always jealous.” Keith left the Garrison for reasons unknown and reasons that Lance knew were personal.

“No way,” Keith laughed.

“Yes way.”

“The great Lance McClain set his ego aside to be jealous of me?”

“You're not as bad as I make you out to be,” Lance admitted.

“Thanks,” Keith said. Though he rolled his eyes and his voice was soaked in sarcasm, the smile playing on his lips suggested he was amused.

They dwelled in a moment of silence where the only things that speak are the cicadas in the woods.

Lance laughed. "Now you say that I'm not as bad you made me out to be either'"

"See, Lance, I think we were having a bonding moment and I don't think I should ruin it by lying to you."

Lance's jaw dropped and he flung the nearest thing to him at Keith. It was a measly twig but he deflected anyway and laughed loud and and fell back onto his back.

"I don't even recall this bonding moment you're talking about. For all I'm concerned with, you still hate me and vice versa.” Lance crossed his arms and stared into the woods.

"We _just_..." Keith knew playing along would only fuel Lance, but he did anyway. "We just shared a heartfelt moment where you confessed your love to me.”

"I know for a fact that didn't happen because I would never tell a guy so early in a date that I love him," Lance sneered jokingly.

"Hey, back off," Keith said raising his arms in the air in surrender. "I have a boyfriend and he's going to kick your ass."

The playful twinkle in Lance eyes faded and his figure became rigid.

"So that's who was-"

The rest of Lance's sentence was cut off by the sound of a loud obnoxious motorcycle. In daylight, when Lance wasn't so irritable, maybe he would have appreciated the Harvey that pulled up by Keith's car. Maybe he would have appreciate the guy getting off the bike with sandy blonde hair that almost glistened in the light of his motorcycle and eyes that were almost emitting light through the night.

The man instantly ran to Keith and jumped in for a hug. he grasped him tight and whispered something in his ear that wasn't audible to Lance. Lance wasn't a nosy person, but- no no no lance was definitely a nosy person and always tried to read people's lips. It was something Keith used to rave and rage about when they went to school together. Yet he whispered the words and hid his lips in the shadows of the night, so that Lance couldn’t see what he was saying.

Keith had gone from the relaxed and laid-back self to a frigid and controlled person from the words the man whispered to him. He awkwardly pushed the man off his body and turned to Lance.

"Lance, this is-"

"Jason!" the man said cheerily despite it being so late at night or rather early in the morning. He stuck his hand out for Lance to shake. After Lance shook his hand slowly and reluctantly, he dropped his other arm around Keith's shoulders. "I'm Keith's boyfriend. Nice to meet you."

Keith rolled his eyes and brushed the arm off his shoulders. "Ex-boyfriend."

Ah, Lance thought.  It's a relationship with undefined boundaries. Keith had obviously thought of him first when he needed someone to drive up and save them at four a.m. Yet, as they brushed up against each other and Jason made more and more moves to get closer to Keith physically, Keith was flinching away more and more. They lacked any type of chemistry that a couple of their age and physique would have. They lacked all the love that Lance associated with relationships like that.

"You brought my bike to pick up two of us?"  Keith asked.

"It’s yours? Sick." Lance said, but immediately regretted it. Sick? Who even said that anymore?

"Yeah, it's mine, but how will it seat three people?"

"You didn't tell me you had a guest," jason said with an emphasized scoff.

"It slipped my mind at the time."

"Mistress will have to stay behind and call a cab then."

A cab.

Keith turned to Lance and they both mirrored the feeling of stupidity and shame on their faces. Neither of them even considered calling a cab service. It may not have been likely to get one in the middle of a highway that wasn't near a single town, but maybe it would have saved them the conversation they were stuck in with Jason.

"We're not together, Jason," Keith said. He couldn’t look him in the eye. He was done trying to defend being around other guys.

"You're out with him on a random highway driving back from whatever hotel you-"

"He said we're not together, dude. Relax," Lance intervened.

"I'm not going to relax! Especially not when a man whore has been fu-"

"Jason! You will not speak to my friend that way!" Keith screamed. He pulled at his hair. Frustration was eating at his insides. "Whatever Lance and I are, you don't have the right to care. You lost it when we broke up."

"But-"

"Lance and I will take my Harley back to Houston. I've been meaning to pick it up from your apartment anyway." Keith put his hand palm up in front of him so Jason could give him his keys. He put them in one pocket and dug out his wallet from the other. He pulled out a wad of money and offered it to Jason. "You can take that cab you were talking about."

Jason eyes frozen Lance up and down and turned back to impatient Keith and scoffed at them, but snatched the money from Keith’s hand anyway.

“Get whatever you need from the car,” Keith ordered Lance. “And let’s go.”

The firmness of his tone concluded the conversation ended there.

Then Jason stood and watched without another word as his ex and his friend got on the Harley he brought over and rode off in just a few seconds.

Jason looked up at the stars. He searched the skies for Orion or maybe for an answer to his relationship problems. Orion shone back and he thought that _maybe_ he deserved to be left abandoned. And he _knew_ that Keith deserved to drive away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't playing when I said weekly updates y'all. Okay, but fr I updated because I've had like 3 shots of espresso today and 3 cups of soda on top of that? I'm shaking from the caffeine high, so I thought I might put that energy to use and edit and upload this chapter today.  
> Today is also the last day of my winter break, so keep me in your prayers, friends.  
> Anyway, thank you for reading! As always, if you liked this chapter, please kudos and tell me what you liked. If you weren't happy with it, leave me a comment saying why, so that I can make this fic better for you guys.  
> Happy New Year!


	7. Harleys and Coincidences

Keith hated a lot of things. He hated Houston humidity and stepping in water with socks on. He hated the sound of loud chewing and pencils squeaking. He hated his ex and sometimes he hated his brother, but he decided he didn’t hate Lance.

He didn’t hate it when Lance wrapped his arms around him on the motorcycle on the way home. He didn’t hate the way the feeling of his body against his.

He didn’t hate it when Lance whispered, “We’re not even wearing helmets we’re gonna die,” as he gripped onto Keith tighter.

He didn’t hate the giddy feeling that bubbled up in his chest when he could feel Lance’s warm breath against his neck.

No, he sort of liked it.

When they got into the Garrison campus, it almost made Keith sad. Sure they had spent the night fighting and the situation they reunited in wasn’t one of joy, but he already missed it.

“Take a right turn here. I’m in the Dawson building,” Lance said.

“Yeah, I used to live there,” Keith commented.

Without the wind in his ears and the loud noise of the motorcycle moving fast, Lance could finally hear the things Keith said.

“Oh, really?” Lance asked.

“Coincidence, I guess.” Keith shrugged.

“More like fate,” Lance said teasingly.

“Yeah, more like fate,” Keith whispered back.

The two remained silent until they pulled up in front of a sign that read “Dawson Residential Hall.”

“So…um,” Lance said awkwardly. “Thank you for the ride.”

He got off the motorcycle especially making sure not to brush against Keith.

“Yeah, no problem.”

“You know, we should do this again,” Lance said.

Keith furrowed his eyebrows.

“We should get stranded on a highway again?” he asked.

“No. I don’t know. Maybe hang out? We can argue more about Beyonce and I don’t know. Maybe it’ll be fun,” Lance said fiddling with his thumbs and trying not to make eye contact with Keith.

“If you ever need a ride back to Orange you can call me, OK?” Keith said reassuringly. “We can bicker about Beyoncé in the car and I don’t know. Maybe it’ll be fun.”

Lance smiled in reply. He tipped his head back and stared at the sky and Lance couldn't help but follow his gaze.

“Good night, sharpshooter,” Keith said. The darkness hid the smile that played on his lips.

Lance’s head snapped back down.

“You remember?”

The nickname was a joke Lance had made up freshman year and their whole class had caught onto it while Keith ridiculed it.

“I don’t think I could forget.”

And then Keith drove off into the dimly lit night and disappeared beyond the fog. 

And amidst the travesty of the situation, Lance couldn’t help but smile.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter? I'm sorry, but I think the chapter's tone called for it. If it makes you feel better, I'm editing chapters 8 and 9 right now. Also I decided that my new story called spectrum (a Klance soulmate au) will be updated bi-weekly on Thursdays instead of Tuesdays so that I can space out updates and editing. The semester is ending and I'm super busy, so please please forgive me if I miss a week of updates :(  
> Thanks for reading and comment what you thought!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while... explanation at the end. 
> 
> Enjoy this chapter.

Lance loved El Paso. He spent his tricycle riding days in the suburbs of El Paso, but as he grew in a bicycle he fell in love with the skies and the stars. He rode his bike to the nearest clearing from his house on summer days where the sunset after dinner. He would lay in the dried unwatered grass and stare at the stars and match constellations with his star map.Then he got a chance to catch the stars in his own hands when he got a scholarship to Garrison University in Houston. He left the bicycle on the driveway in El Paso and the old Lance left without looking back. But after three years of having the stars at his fingertips, Lance come to hate Houston.

He missed El Paso. He missed his family. 

Hunk and Pidge started to become Lance’s only family and now… now Hunk and Lance were fighting over nothing and Pidge was fighting for her life. 

He desperately needed to be with family. It was still Spring Break and he hadn’t visited home since Christmas, so on a whim, he pulled out his laptop. When it beeped signaling it was dead, he dug his hands into his hair in frustration, plugged it in and made himself a mug of coffee. Before he finished drinking his coffee, he had bought a plane ticket to El Paso. 

In just 3 hours, Lance was secured for a flight. He packed immediately for the the 6 am flight, but with the intention of borrowing his siblings' clothes, he packed light and fast and he was already situated in an Uber on his way to Houston International. 

It was 3am on a sunday morning and he was about to go to El Paso. It hit him when he was in Uber and he restrained himself from squealing. There was a burst of energy and in Lance’s chest that wasn’t from the caffeine. It was the same feeling as when he found a constellation hours after searching for it.

He pulled his phone out to text his brother to let him know the good news, but decided it would be better as a surprise. Once he opened his messages he realized that he hadn't replied to grit daddy yet. 

(Sunday, March 2nd, 3:02 am): sorry I didn't reply I feel asleep. 

It was a lie, but he sent it out anyway. he didn't need to explain everything to someone who he didn't even know. For all he knew this girl’s girl's name was grit daddy. He started scrolling through the conversation to see why he would have added her name as that. 

(Wednesday, February 28th 9pm): tell me more about yourself

(9:01) why do you want to know so much about me?

(9:01) Because you haven't told me anything

(9:02) I've told you loads

(9:02) I don't even know your name

(9:02) my name is grit 

(9:03)  that's pretty

(9:03)  that's not actually my name that's a nickname i got in high school. I would always say you needed grit to get anything done and suddenly I was the father of grit 

(9:04)  you're grit daddy

(9:05)  is that my stipper name 

(9:06)  it is if you want it to be

He looked up from my phone and at the busy streets that lead to the airport. 

Houston was like another city that never slept. It was beautiful, but Lance needed more than beautiful right now.

When he flew over it just hours later, the sun had almost completely risen and illuminated the whole city of bustle and hustle. Once the plane rose into more clouds and covered the city, he left the past week behind him. He rose above it all and away from it all. He wanted to forget about the grit girl and Pidge and Hunk and Mardi Gras for just once moment. 

But he couldn't. He kept wanting to read more and more texts from her. He tried distracting himself with a coloring game on his phone or by watching  movie on the plane tv, but he couldn't help but take out his phone and scroll back in the conversation. 

 

(Thursday March 1 9:27 am)  I got a 95 on the essay!

(9:27) Good job! You earned that 

(9:28) With help from you of course

(9:28) I did nothing

(9:30)  You always affect people more than you think you do

(9:37)  wyd

(9:37) I’m at the pier with my friend, but she keep getting distracted by all these different stores, so I'm just waiting for her at this one restaurant. 

(9:37)  fun

(9:38) not even close

(9:38)  at least you're not writing a lab report like I am

(9:39) i should be writing a lab report, but most of my classes get cancelled around breaktime because a lot of my professors work other jobs

(9:39)  that's how it was at my old college 

(9:39) i love it bc we get longer school breaks where i don't have to sit through classes don't get me wrong i love learning and whatever, but not in a lecture hall full of sleeping kids

(9:40)  yeah i feel you. I love science, but its not as fun in a classroom

(9:40) yes if i want to be a pilot why are you making me sit in a classroom lol

(9:40)  you want to be a pilot?

(9:40) or an astronaut

(9:41) that felt really stupid to type out

(9:41)  it's  not stupid i think that's perfect for you

(9:41) you don't even know me lol

(9:42)  I know you well enough. 

(9:42) really what do you know 

(9:44)  i know your soul is blue and that if we were soulmates we would be purple

(9:44) but you don't believe in soulmates

(9:44)  I believe there are people you are compatible with bt there isn't like once person in the entire world for you. There's so many people in this world you have to be compatible with more than one. 

(9:45) But i think there's a special person that the universe draws you to. At every corner and at every weird moment in your life they'll be there.

 

Pidge's color drained face flashed in Lance's mind. The thought of her lying cold in a hospital room miles behind him sent a shiver down his spine. He read the text again. 

_ At every corner and at every weird moment in your life they'll be there. _

This time Keith’s dimly lit smile in front of Dawson Hall flashed before him. Lance always thought that friends could be soulmates too. Pidge and Lance clicked because they were a different type of platonic soulmate duo. 

Everything he read brought him back to Pidge, so he put his phone back on airplane mode and when to sleep until the plane landed into El Paso. 

El Paso was as ugly just as ugly as Lance left it. There was no vegetation beside the dead grass that crunched under his dirty Vans. The air was dry and the air pollution nipped at his eyes, yet as Lance waited for his Uber in he couldn't help but take a deep breath of dry hot Texan air and smile. It was home. And home had its flaws, but what made it home was that he could look past the imperfections. 

In the half hour drive it took to get to his suburban home, he came across no traffic. No traffic. Lance almost salivated at the sight of an empty lane- a luxury none could find in the busy Houston streets. The further he got from El Paso and into his suburban home town, 

He checked his phone for the time 

It was 10 am on a sunday morning. 

His family was at Sunday mass. 

"Lance honey, is that you?" a voice called. 

Lance turned to the neighboring house where old Mrs. Briggins sat on the porch swing with a mug of coffee and a grin 

"Mrs. Briggins! How are you?" Lance asked with fake enthusiasm.

"Oh, just grand, but tell me more about your college life in the city!" she said. 

"It's just Houston, Mrs. Briggins. It's no big deal."

"Oh, please. EVerything is the city compared to our town."

She was right of course. Lance's hometown of Brookside was the smallest El Paso suburb and everything around it seemed like a city compared to it. NOthing happened there and there was nothing to do, but it was home. And home had no flaws. 

"Isn't your family at mass, dear?" 

"Yes, ma'am," Lance said trying to find a way to get out of the conversation. 

Mrs. Briggins gestured to her door. "Why don't you come in and have a cup of hot chocolate like I used to make for you when you were little. Come on, darling."

It was was more of a command than an invitation and Lance went into the house with his backpack and suitcase reluctantly. It was alway hours before Mrs. Briggins ever let anyone out of her house. She sucked every last drop of marrow out of every last conversation. 

It must have been far past the end of mass and his family must have been home when Lance finally got out of Mrs. Briggins' house. When he stepped out, the family was pulling into the driveway next door and only one sibling had spotted Lance so far. 

"Lancey! Mama it's Lancey!" ben exclaimed and ran into Mrs. Briggins' yard. the brothers embraced in a hug and Lance spun him around. 

"I missed you so much, bud."

“You smell like alcohol,” he noted. 

“Fu-”

“Like antiseptic… what did you think I meant?”

“Hey, I’m legal, so-”

“Lance, did I know you were coming?” my mom asked.

“It’s called a surprise mom.” Lance shook his head and engulfed his mother’s small frame in a hug.

Yeah, Lance was home. 

He let his siblings enter first as he lingered on the porch. “Lance you can’t go out this weekend we have to paint the porch,” his dad would say every other weekend. They never did. 

Leaving his dusty Vans on the faded white wood, Lance followed his mom into the house. The house was a mess as usual, with a stack of outdated magazines on the foyer table and toys littered on the hardwood. To Lance, the mess only made it more homey. 

He walked slowly through the hall taking in all the photographs on the wall that were switched out since the last time he saw them. There were always so many photos around, his Mom made a point to switch them out often. 

“What’s for breakfast?” Lance yelled down the hall as he 

“Nothing until you shower,” his mom replied from the kitchen. “You look like you just came back from hell.”

“Oh, you have no idea.”   
  
  
  


  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, boy! I hope you enjoyed that chapter which was fourth months in the making.   
> That's a lie, I had it written to be posted two weeks after the last chapter where I said I would post every week. Realistically, I knew that wasn't going to happen and it still isn't going to happen, but I will give you more than one update per month for SURE. I was so reluctant to post this one because this is the last prewritten chapter I have and I have prewritten every single chapter of this story so far. Now I'm at a crossroads. Comment where you think I should take this story. I have things I want to do, but I need connections inbetween those plot points.   
> As always, thank you so much for reading! Kudos mean the world and constructive criticism is highly appreciated!


End file.
